Last Visit for a While

Luke
Allie and her Daddy

Louise and her baby boy

Enjoying dinner

Well, we made it back safely from Ohio, and enjoyed a last visit with Jr, Brandey and the girls. We also got to visit with friends Bob and Sharon and Anita and John before we packed up and headed for Kilgore. We arrived last Thursday without incident after driving in pouring rain all the way. For the last week we did our things during the day and visited in the evening. One day we drove to Shreveport to consult with our financial guy. On Monday I reported to jury duty. After a couple of hours of formalities and selection, all of us were dismissed with the thanks of the court. I was relieved cause we leave on Sat. for Livingston and our new job which starts on Monday. We have been trying to walk our two miles every day, but the weather hasn't been cooperating. We have had a couple days of sunshine and chilly winds. The other days have been just like March in Ohio--overcast and damp or downright wet. Today it even snowed! Yikes!!! We are regretting being here in Texas this winter. The weather couldn't compete with the warm fire we found at son Jeremy's house, though. In the evenings we has some great visits with Jeremy, Jennifer, Allie and Luke. We played and visited, and shared meals. On Monday son Jesse came to visit also. We spent a few daytime hours playing cards and catching up with him. One day he helped Duane pull the washer/dryer out so he could clean out the dryer exhaust. It really needed it. It was full of lint. Now, though, all of our visiting is at an end. Jesse went back home to Temple this evening. Jeremy and family are leaving tomorrow for a weekend visit with Jennifer's parents. We have one more day here before we head south. Tomorrow we plan to start getting stuff put away. If the weather isn't too bad, we might drive to Tyler and visit one of my favorite quilt shops. I really don't have anything I need to buy for the next quilt, but I always like to look.

Enough til later

Louise and Duane

50 years!!!

Three brothers
(Still) happy couple

Still smilin'

We went traveling again. This time we hopped on a plane to our home area of Dayton, Ohio. Duane's brother Dennis and his wife Pat celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on Saturday. They were surrounded by their many family members and friends. We felt we couldn't miss it, so away we went. The party was fun and we were glad we were there. After the party we went to Dennis and Pat's house and had a nice quiet visit with them. The top pic is of the three boys. Dennis is oldest, then Dean and Duane. (Dennis is actually taller than Duane.)

While we were in Ohio we didn't do a whole lot. We arrived on Wed and went directly to our friend Barbara's house. On Thurs am we made a quick trip to the store. Friday evening we met daughter Stacy for dinner. Sat afternoon was the party. Sunday we visited with daughter Rachel, son-in-law Benji (when he got home from work) and grandchildren Maddy, Simon, and Judah. Monday we ventured out to the Esther Price candy store. Today we flew home. The rest of the time we stayed home with our friend Barbara. Duane kicked back in the recliner under a fleece blanket. Barbara and I sat at the table for hours playing Rummy Cubes.

There were a couple of reason for not doing a whole lot of running around. One was the weather. Cold!!! Highs in the 20's and lows in the teens. The other was that we were getting over two weeks of colds. I was down to the sniffles, but every time Duane hit the cold air, he started coughing. He was much better by Sunday, probably because he spent a lot of time resting.

At any rate, we were well enough for one last visit with Jr, Brandey and the twins today. Tomorrow we plan to goof off. On Thursday we pack up and head east for Kilgore. We will visit with son Jeremy, daughter-in-law Jennifer and grandkids Allie and Luke. I have to report for jury duty (they finally caught up with me) on the 8th. On the 15th we start our training with the Escapees.

Basta por hoy!

Louise and Duane

CA dreamin'

Flight out
View of San Francisco

Curly locks

Katie after

Katie before

Our new digs...for now

This is titled California dreamin cause we were dreamin of escaping the dismal Texas weather. Instead we got cold (50 deg) rainy weather except for a day and a half of sunshine. A couple of days it actually rained all day! We had hoped to play outside with the grandkids, do a little touring, etc. but the weather and our health finally won. In spite of these, we had a good time and enjoyed playing with Jack (2 1/2) and Katie (13mos.), and visiting with son Matt and daughter-in-law Beth.

Things got off to a rocky start when we arrived in San Francisco and had to take the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) train to Pleanant Hill and walk the mile or so to the condo dragging our luggage. It was one of those rare days when Matt and Beth both had to work. We didn't know how to find a taxi so we hoofed it. The weather was overcast and damp, but in the 60's so not too bad. We stopped just up the street at the Black Bear for supper, then went on. During the next few days we stayed with Katie while Matt and Beth took Jack to look at a preschool. We played with both kids while Beth worked and Matt went to donate plasma. We all went to watch Katie get her first haircut and Jack got more of his red curls trimmed and thinned. On one night the babysitter came. We adults went to a very nice restaurant for dinner--including dessert. Then we went to see Avatar in 3D. Great fun! It really lived up to the hype. It was kinda predictable, but definitely not boring. On another day I wanted to go to Berkley to see if we could find my nephew David whom I hadn't seen in years so Matt and Beth reserved space in the daycare on Monday. Unfortunately, disaster struck. Duane and I came down with terrible colds. We coughed and blew our noses through the rest of our stay. Duane slept a lot and I had trouble breathing. When Monday came, Matt was sick too. So instead of touring, we stayed home (it rained all day anyway). Matt and Duane spent time in their respective beds. Beth and I watched a movie called District 9. Pretty good actually. Get the dvd and see what you think. The rest of the day we sat around watching Family Feud (really feeling yucky) and chatting. We did have a nice dinner of roast chicken with rice stuffing (Matt likes to cook and is always trying new dishes.) The children were gone from 11 to 7 (or so) and we did a lot of nothing. We left Tuesday. Matt was going to drive us to the airport, but was still sick. We didn't want Beth driving in the pouring rain in backed up traffic either, so we took the BART to the airport. At least we didn't have to walk to the station this time! In spite of our woes, we still had a good time. Most of the time we felt ok. We just went through a lot of tissues. Today (Wed.) we decided to do some more sitting around. We did our things. This means Duane computered and watched tv. I read and watched tv. The one different thing is that I have to cook now. O well. Can't be on vacation all the time!

Enough for now!

Louise and Duane

COLD !!!!!!!!!!

This is NOT a good year to be in Dallas, TX. IT'S COLD HERE!! The temperature on the outside of the coach is 18 this morning. This has been the coldest it has been in 14 years. We have the slides on the motorhome closed so we don't have as much area to heat. We used 16 gallons of propane the first week we were here. Normally 16 gals will last 3 months. Next year I think we will spend Jan. where it's warmer, if we can find such a place...lol

So... why are we here? Kids and grandbabies!! We will have Christmas with all the TX. kids tomorrow. Monday we get on a plane to fly to CA. to visit the kids and grandbabies there. We have had a great time visiting the big kids and playing with the little people. The babies are the cutest in the world. Their mother entered them in the Regis and Kelly baby contest, if they don't win I'll quit watching that show...LOL The Kilgore and Temple kids will arrive today for Christmas tomorrow. It will be great to have half of the kids in one place. This does not happen to often because of their working and our travels. Maybe some day we can get all six kids and nine grandkids together in one place again, hope so. They live in CA., TX., and OH., which makes it really hard work out . Of coarse it don't help that we are on the move a lot. We do workcamp some which ties us up. Quite a job to get everyone at once.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

Double fun

Gramps and the girls

Who's who?

Big Girls

Hey everybody, we have been here in Celina since Wednesday visiting son Duane Jr., daughter-in-law Brandey, and of course Emma and Ava. Our house is parked in their driveway for the time being, so we are having fun being close to the family and visiting them every day. The girls are really cute and at that fun age when they recognize faces and can sit up and grab things. They are getting ready to crawl also. They still look a lot alike. We can only tell them apart when they are close together, or by looking at their different color earrings. In the top pic, Ava is on the left and Emma on the right. In the other two, they are switched. They have been practicing sitting up alone, so they got new high chairs on Saturday. They looked pleased, don't they! They are really cute and smile most of the time.

Since we were working on Christmas Day, we missed visiting our Texas kids. We will be making up for that on this coming Saturday. We will be celebrating Christmas then and are looking forward to seeing them again. If you are lucky, or --more likely-- if Duane gets motivated, you will be treated to pix from our party. Until then, you'll have to make do with the ones above.

Basta!

Louise and Duane

Tourists!

Sooo good lookin'

Our hosts

On Sunday we took one last tour. We drove to Rockport for a last visit with former Goliad hosts Bob and Ruth Bolthouse. After a wonderful 'picnic' lunch of bbq ribs, potato salad and watermelon at the dining room table, we took a driving tour of the town. It was a beautiful sunny/blue sky day, although the wind was chilly. We ended up bayside. There is a little free aquarium there and a beautiful little park space with some really nice sea themed sculptures. After our picture session, we went back to their 'house' for coffee and pie. Yum! We had a very nice visit, but eventually had to head home.

Rockport is a nice little town with a lot of rv parks and a few shops. Situated right on the bay, it looks like a nice quiet place to spend the winter. However, we were told that things get liviler after the first of the year. We will have to wait for Bob and Ruth's report on that!

Basta por hoy,

Louise and Duane

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Our Christmas Tree

Emma and Ava in Louise's sleigh

Cousins

Merry Christmas Faithful Readers. We hope you enjoy our tree as much as we are enjoying it. The pic of the twins, Emma and Ava means a lot to me (Louise). They are sitting in the little sleigh I rode in before I was a year old. Son Duane Jr., wife Brandey and the girls were visiting daughter Rachel, husband Benji and Madeleine, Simon, and Judah. As you can see from the bottom picture, two of the babies (Judah is a month and a half older than the girls) needed attention. You can also see that Maddy's hair is really getting long, Simon is mimicking his dad with his hands in his pockets and one of the girls (Emma, I think) is sitting pretty.

We are celebrating the season by going to Christmas Eve services tonight and having the neighbors (other hosts) over for dinner tomorrow. We will be serving the traditional Wegley feast of ham and homemade maccaroni and cheese. The weather here has been sunny or at least partly so for the last week, a welcome change after almost 3 weeks of overcast and rain. Today the wind is blowing to beat the band. We are off the next two days, then back to work for 4 more days. The time has flown and we have enjoyed our work camp experience here at Goliad State Park. The staff and other hosts have been a joy to work with, but we are ready to get our wheels turning again.

Happy Holidays,

Louise and Duane

My first cypress knee carving

Old World Santa

Jeremy gave me a cypress knee from his place in North Texas. I decided to try my hand at carving an Old World Santa in it. I was pretty happy with the way it turned out. I hope others like it too.

The photo above represents a breakthrough for Duane. A week ago last Thurs. he came down with a bad cold that has hung on forever. The Santa above is a sign that he is on the mend. Fortunately I have been well so was able to fulfill our hours of requirement at the mission. Otherwise, we have been getting ready for Christmas here making gifts for friends and family. We have several boxes ready for the post office. On Christmas day we will celebrate with the other camp hosts by sharing dinner here. Good times!

More later. Louise and Duane

A few days off

Ye Olde Blacksmith Shoppe
Goliad loves its live oaks!

South Padre Island

Bob's World

As you can tell by the interesting pix, we have been touring again. We had a few days off due to some scheduling irregularities, so we decided to see what else the world could offer. First was a driving tour of Goliad. Duane was particularly attracted to the blacksmith shop. To the uninitiated, this looks like a junk shop, but of course we know better. There are real treasures to be found--if you know what you're looking for. I liked the trees in the middle of the streets. Seems the founders of Goliad admired the live oaks so much that there is a city ordanance against cutting any down. They grow where they are and life goes on around them. Next day we drove down to the Rio Grande Valley just to see what we could see. We found South Padre Island and its beautiful white sand beaches were not so inviting under gray skies, chill winds and blowing sand. By the time we were back in the car after our 10 minute visit, my teeth felt as if they'd just been cleaned by the dentist (full of grit). We drove to the end of the island, then headed for the causeway. We did enjoy seeing and hearing the ocean again, and the big dunes at the far end, but had to admit that blue skies and warm breezes added much more fun to a beach outing. So we headed north again, intending to turn west toward Mission, the winter home of a lot of RVers. We wanted to see if we would be happy spending the winter there sometime. We got sidetracked by Bob's World. We had to stop and explore the parking lot. It was way cool! (I particularly liked the norman sized dolphins where everything else was giant sized.) Then we got sucked into the store. Hundreds of shells (fake and real), lots of ornaments and other personalized items, lots of touristy stuff, but none of what we call truck stop kitsch. We wantered around for a while, then headed out again. By this time we ran out of light and Duane started to come down with some kind of cold or sinus infection, so we looked for a place to eat dinner and hole up for the night. Next day we woke up to cold rain and a forcast for ice and snow for the afternoon, so we gave up any idea of further fun and headed home. We are not enjoying the weather here now. Last night the low was 31 on our themometer and the water froze. (We unhooked first, of course.) I wonder if people showed up the the lighted parade in downtown Goliad in the snow. This am is sunny and cold. I think it put the damper on Goliad's Christmas on the Square. The vendors must be frozen! We were planning on going, but to us cold is a nasty four-letter word!

Our favorite lizard
Christmas ready

Church at night

Mission at night

Hi faithful readers. We hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving day. We spent ours here at the park. I (Louise) cooked turkey, mashed taters and gravy. Our other hosts, Ruth and Bob Bolthouse and Ruth Touchstone brought side dishes. We had a good time eating good food and visiting. We had our dinner at lunchtime, so later Duane and I took a short walk around our loop. The park was full of campers. Many brought their deep fryers for their turkeys. The weather was a little damp and chilly at night, but our campers all had a good time.

The beautiful lights decorating the mission was a combined effort of park staff and volunteers. I arranged the alter rail and pulpit lights and Duane and Ruth T. helped with the tree and some of the the outside lighting. The pix show the southeast corner of the mission complex. The shadows on the walls show a part of the timeline trail set up around two sides of the church. They are the result of lights shining on wooden sillhouettes. The mission was decorated for the Christmas Concert next Saturday. I'm not sure of the events planned for the evening, but I know there will be a choir and some music in the church. The top pic is our favorite lizard. I discovered this lizard last week in the same spot. It was removed to a tree outside, but I guess it likes the anvil best.

We have been here one month already. It has flown by. We are enjoying our stay here and like the people we work with. Last Tuesday we went to (our volunteer supervisor) Tammy's house to share lasagna with the staff and volunteers. This is a fun group at work and at play. We had such a good time with our fellow hosts there and at the Thanksgiving service and Thanksgiving dinner that we all got together tonight (Sunday) for supper at the local Mexican restaurant. Then we drove 30 miles north to Cuervo to tour their big drive-thru holiday light display. After all that viewing we had to stop at the Dairy Queen in Goliad for a snack. We had a great time. Unfortunately, that was the last outing for our group. Tomorrow the others head out in other directions. Their replacements arrived today, but we haven't met them yet. Hopefully we can have as much fun with them in December as we had with Ruth, Ruth and Bob in November.

Basta por hoy!

Louise and Duane

New carvings

Working Pliers

Small Santa


Santa ornament



Cross Ornament

Here are four of the latest carvings I have done. I have had the Santa ornaments carved for sometime now, but just got around to painting them. The small Santa and the cross were carved in the last week. I have a couple of other things carved that I have to paint before I post them. The pliers are box joint pliers thet I saw when we went to the Warther Museum in Dover, Ohio. I cut out about 10 pieces and after 8 failures I got 2 in a row to work. They are of no use at all but fun to do and show to people.

That's it for now

Duane and Louise

Giagantic spider and web

Northern flicker

Sunbathing vultures

Good looking candles

Inspiring our youth

Well, we got through the most strenous part of our job here. The park has an annual event called Spanish Tracks and Trails. On Friday 1000 school children stepped back into time to discover what kept pioneers and settlers busy every day. Demonstrators included people carving (guess who), candle dipping (guess who else), leather working, blacksmithing, hair rope making, cord making, making home remedies, making Indian flutes, discussing what the area looked liked when people started colonizing--including the topography and animals, knitting, pottery making, geneology, and two re enactors who represented the clothing and accroutements available. Saturday was open to the general public, so our jobs weren't as demanding.

To prepare for STT, we used our day off on Thursday to take a long nature walk. In the morning the turkey vultures sunbathe as they dry the dew from their feathers and warm themselves. Most trees have have a dozen or so, but we found one that had about a hundred. Amazing! Since we weren't walking fast we took time to locate the Northern Flicker and get a good shot. The big web represents the hundreds of such spiders around here. Most of these large ones are above head level so most people don't notice them. The webs average 2 feet in diameter and the spiders could straddle a 50 cent piece. The one above was about 3 feet above our heads. We would have missed it but we were looking for birds and the sun hit it just right. After our walk we went to Victoria for a little shopping and lunch.

To help us recover from our long days, we were relieved of night duty Sat. night (good thing since the place was packed and would have taken us more than an hour) and given Sunday off (since we worked our usual Friday day off). Duane didn't need it so much since he sat all day, but I was on my feet and full of smoke (couldn't keep the logs burning). Now we are back on our regular schedule. Now we can concentrate on our Christmas projects. Duane has finished his ornaments for the grandchildren. I have finished the birth announcements for the twins (framed them on Sunday), so its on to other things.

Smart-alec at the hanging tree

Fannin memorial at the battleground

Red shouldered hawk

This was taken at the mission grounds Tuesday

We are now comfortable in our new routine. We think we have the leak fixed and that we know the routine and information about the mission. The weather has been beautiful (if a little chilly at night) and we have been able to get our exercise in every day so we feel good. This enables us to get back to our carving and sewing of Christmas gifts. All of this is going to change next week when 1000 school children converge on the mission for an annual program called Spanish Tracksand Trails. Everyone will be helping. Duane will be carving and I will be dipping candles.

This week was quiet, though, so we were able to do a little sight-seeing yesterday. We drove to the little hamlet of Fannin and missed it when we blinked. Past that is the Fannin battleground. This is a very nice well maintained monument on the actual battleground between retreating Texans and the Mexican army. The importance of Fannin is that he honorably surrendered his men to the Mexican army as prisioners of war. They were marched back to the Presidio La Bahia and imprisioned there. Then General Santa Ana decided they must be shot. So they were. All 350+. The original rallying cry was "Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad!"

While we were out we did a little geocaching. We found all four on the road the memorial was on, including one at the memorial. We weren't that far from the highway, but we were in the middle of nowhere. It was very quiet. No sound but the wind, a few birds, and the buzz of grasshoppers. Very refreshing. Back on the road we let Wataburger feed us in Goliad, then found the local history museum was open so stopped by for a visit. From there we went to the local cemetery to find a cache and to read some of the old headstones. Then we drove to the west edge of town and stopped to read an historical marker. Across the road we happened to spot the remnants of Mission Rosario, the sister to our mission, four miles away. This is protected behind a high chain link fence, but has not been excavated or rebuilt. From there we took off to visit Beeville 30 miles away. This is the closest big town on the west of Goliad as Victoria is on the east. We knew nothing of the town so we decided to take a look. We didn't find much of historical interest, so we went back to Goliad. The light was still good, so we decided to stop by the courthouse square. We walked around reading all of the historical signs and happened on the one pictured above. Justice was swift at the courthouse and the tree was in regular use at one time.

That was our touring day. Today I intend to make inroads on my embroidery. Duane has decided it is housecleaning day. This means the clutter has gotten to him and he can't stand it any more. This also means I'd better get my stuff put away so he will not bug me!